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"So, what? Stiles is like some super mutant?" Derek asked, one eyebrow raised incredulously.
"That's not what I said." sighed Deaton.
"That's basically what you said." Stiles agreed with Derek and they both nodded along together like they knew what was going on.
"No," Deaton felt his pulse climbing slowly with annoyance, "What I said was that Stiles is a Spark - meaning that down to his very core he is a creator. And the more he uses his spark the more it grows and the more he can achieve."
"Sounds like a super mutant to me." Derek said.
"Just call me Jean Grey." Stiles puffed his chest out and stood straighter.
"Wanda Maximoff suits your situation better." pointed out Derek.
Stiles turned a heated gaze to his lover. "Remind me to blow you when we get home for knowing who the Scarlet Witch is."
"Boys." Deaton settled them both with a look, chastising them efficiently before continuing where he left off. "Being a Spark isn't as easy as thinking of a unicorn then you magically have a unicorn. The spark is a fickle form of magic that likes to not work just as much as it likes to work. Stiles has been pushing the boundaries and boarders of his sparks limits consistently, and for the most part his spark has allowed him all of his whims. But now for some reason it's acting up."
"So what's changed then?" Stiles asked Deaton.
Derek frowned at the linoleum flooring. "This all began when we started dating."
Stiles protested, "Derek it won't be-"
"As profound as I'm sure your relationship is," Deaton cut Stiles off, "It will be something a little more related to your actual spark, Stiles. What about your magic has changed over these past few months?"
Stiles crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes as he thought long and hard about his magic. "I've been using less and less of it."
"Why?" Queried Deaton.
"There hasn't been that much of a supernatural threat lately, so outside of the mundane lazy 'accio TV remote' and tinkering with herbs and seals I haven't really been using it. But how could me not using my spark cause it to lash out like this?"
Deaton sighed. "You've pushed your spark to it's limits to grow to something significant enough where you can serve and protect the people around you."
"And now that I'm not pushing it it's pushing back." Stiles dropped his arms back at is side, and offered Derek a smile before he turned his attention back to Deaton. "So if I just use my spark more - and for things more important than the TV remote, it should calm it's farm?"
"Theoretically." Deaton turned and walked further into the clinic, ending any further discussion.
"Good chat!" Stiles yelled at Deaton's retreating back, then smiled at Derek. "Now how about that blowie?"
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They were severely outnumbered.
"I don't want to kill Groot, Derek!" Stiles groaned as he dodged a swinging tree branch aiming for his head.
"For the third time, they're random trees not Groot!" Derek on the other hand was completely fine with shredding trees down to kindling. "For the love of god, Stiles, end this so we can deal with the fucking witch!"
"I'm sorry." Stiles muttered to the trees as his amber eyes got swallowed in fathomless black. Spontaneously, all the bewitched trees burst into chunks of sawdust.
The witch flicked her eyes over to Stiles and raised her hand, flickers of green light sparking between her fingers. Whatever spell she was going to cast would never be known though, Derek taking advantage of her turned attention to sprint with preternatural speed and slit her throat with his claws.
As her body slumped to the ground and her blank gaze stared eternally upwards, Derek's heckles raised further. Something wasn't right. This was too easy. Something was wrong.
As if time slowed just to mock him, Derek watched frame by frame as a second witch pierced Stiles with a splintered branch.
Derek yelled in emotional agony, collapsing to the ground in shock and trying to take off running all at once; limbs spasming to the forest floor in an uncoordinated heap. In the blink of an eye the second witch exploded in a mist of blood; yet not a drop of that misted crimson had touched Stiles. The branch that had once been inside of Stiles melted away into a mercury like liquid; the wound remaining open and hollow as it too dripped silver.
Derek watched the liquid drip to the ground, bursts of flora and fauna unfolding around Stiles' feet and spreading out with every drop. "Stiles?" Derek's voice was broken. "Baby?" His lovers' eyes were still the colour of pitch, tears of mercury dripping from his cheeks and off the tip of his nose; moss and daisies bursting to life at his feet.
"They made me hurt Groot."
Stiles' voice sounded like the words of five different people speaking at the same time. Derek moved slowly, making sure that his palms were open and at his side - claws away. "They were just trees, Stiles. Plain, normal trees with no sentient life in them."
"What do you know of the life of bratus? There are trees in this preserve older than your families ties to this land. And they made me destroy them." Stiles' head turned sharply to face Derek, and Derek's body froze in place with fear.
Stiles began walking towards Derek and his body seemed weightless with each step, clothing shifting around him as if submerged in water. The mercury-like liquid continued to drip from Stiles' eyes and the still open wound through his stomach, Derek's knees finally giving way and dropping him to the forest floor, shins resting on the splintered remains of the trees. "We can grow this forest back Stiles. Plant two trees for every one destroyed." In the blink of an eye Stiles was right in front of Derek, tears of silver falling at Derek's knees; white lilies sprouting up to form a grove around them.
"It is not a matter of simply replacing what has been lost. It is the grief in being have made to destroy so that I could continue on. What makes my life any more important than the life of trees? I am but a blip in time where they are pillars."
Derek looked down at the lilies around him, the flora and fauna that had grown - and was still growing, behind Stiles from his silver tears. "This, Stiles." Derek gestured to the lilies. "You're a Spark. You're a creator. When Scarlet Witch was pushed past the brink she took away a third of the mutants abilities just like that." He snapped his fingers and the sound echoed louder than it should have in the forest around them.
"So what you're saying is that I should remove a third of the supernatural's abilities just as Wanda did?"
"No!" Panicked, Derek ran his hands over his face as he desperately thought. "That does no good in the end. She could have removed the abilities of a mutant who could cure untreatable illnesses; and you might remove the abilities of me, or Scott, or Kira. Instead of taking away like she did, add. Rebuild this forest, then create a guardian to watch over it and protect it from evil. Create a Groot, Stiles."
The black in Stiles eyes flickered, a flash of warm amber before the black swallowed it up again.
"Create and protect, Stiles. That's always what you've been best at. Don't let the evil of others change you." Derek couldn't say any more. He offered out his hand for Stiles to take, to bring him back from the edge of destruction and only hoped that Stiles would take it.
In a single blink, Stiles' eyes were back to their honey brown. The mercury-like substance fell from Stiles' eyes at a near constant rate now, the liquid from the hole still through his stomach over-poured and flowed freely, forest-life springing up around them and spreading out in thick, rapid tendrils. Stiles reached out and cupped Derek's face in his hands, smiling as he brushed his thumbs over his lovers cheekbones. "I need you to close your eyes for me, babe." The silver liquid began dripping from Stiles' nose and ears, his mouth following suit as his eyes began to shine white. "Derek, close your eyes."
Derek didn't need to be told twice after last time. He shut his eyes, felt Stiles place his hands over his lids for extra protection, and Derek placed his hands over Stiles'. Even with the added barriers, the white that was emitted from Stiles' eyes could still be seen and Derek worried that he'd been blinded again.
Stiles pulled his hands back, shifting his fingers to hold Derek's hands. Derek remained kneeling on the forest floor with his eyes closed though and Stiles huffed a laugh. "You can open them now."
Derek's eyes flew open and the first thing he took in was Stiles' abdomen without a massive gapping hole in it - no silver liquid to be found. "Oh thank god." He let go of Stiles hands and wrapped his arms around Stiles' body, resting his head on his lovers healed stomach.
Smiling, Stiles ran his fingers through Derek's hair and felt Derek grip him that much more tighter; a small prick of claws through his clothing. "If you look to your left you'll see the Guardian I made for this forest."
Derek shifted his head left and wasn't surprised in the slightest when a humanoid tree smiled and waved back at him. "You made Groot."
"I made Groot!" The tree nodded at the two of them then walked off into the newly dense forest around them. "I soaked the land in my spark, so the moment anything magical steps foot in this preserve Groot will know about it and be able to put an end to any evil on this land. It'll also hopefully keep my spark busy in the mean time so I shouldn't in theory, have to worry about it lashing out again."
Derek nodded against Stiles' stomach, the two standing in silence for a moment. "I was kind of expecting him to say 'I am Groot'."
"Yeah nah, he doesn't speak. Not that I didn't try though." Stiles ran his hands through Derek's hair again, staring off in the direction the walking tree left. "Thank you."
The weight in those two words was not lost on Derek, "Any time." Glancing around at the rich plant life all around them, Derek finally stood and looked Stiles in his beautiful amber eyes. "You're way cooler than Wanda."
"Next Halloween I'm being the Scarlet Witch and you're being Vision." Stiles took Derek by the hand and began leading them out of the preserve.
"A-huh."